ABC2’s Good Game, Australia’s longest running television show about video games, has been cancelled.
Announced today, the decision to axe Good Game appeared to come as a last-minute shock to its production team. Host Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen said at the end of December’s season finale that the show would return mid-February. The Good Game website still states that 2017 episodes will be “available soon”. And up until last Monday, Good Game’s Twitter seemed to believe that they were returning as well.
Hello 2017.
— Good Game (@GoodGameTV) January 23, 2017
Unfortunately, it is not to be, and season 10’s finale will now be the series finale.
Good Game’s children’s show on ABC ME, Good Game: Spawn Point, will continue, albeit in an as yet unspecified alternate format. Good Game: Spawn Point debuted on 20 February 2010, and only reviews games rated G or PG.
Hosted by Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell and Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen, Good Game was created in 2006 by Janet “Sydski” Carr, Michael “Kapowski” Makowski and Jeremy “Junglist” Ray.
Good Game celebrated its 10th anniversary last September with an hour-long birthday special in front of a live audience, which seemed to indicate that it was only going from strength to strength. There was a recent production shake-up, with Carr moving on from her role as Executive Producer at the end of last year, but a replacement had been instated. There was no indication the show would not continue.
There has been no official word regarding the fate of Good Game’s online shows, which were launched over the last two years. Good Game: Well Played covers esports, and was previously hosted by Michael “Hingers” Hing (who has since left to host the League of Legends’ Oceanic Pro League). It is currently hosted by Angharad “Rad” Yeo. Good Game: Pocket, hosted by Nich “Nichboy” Richardson, is a daily news and gameplay show.
The show’s cancellation was attributed to the decision of two of Good Game’s hosts to pursue other opportunities, as well as its audience’s increasing tendency to find gaming information from other sources.
Both the show and games themselves have changed significantly since the first episode of Good Game back in 2006. Hosted by Kapowski and Junglist, it reviewed the then-new game Saints Row and looked at trailers for Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Crysis. It also featured creepy yellow monkey mascot P-Nutz.
As we wrote last September, it’s difficult to imagine a world without Good Game. Regardless of whether you enjoyed the show or not, there is no denying that it was an integral part of the Australian gaming scene. It’s a devastating loss, and leaves a massive void in Australian gaming media.
Goodnight, Good Game. Until next time, may all your games be good ones.
Update [11:50AM]: It has been confirmed that none of the shows aside from Good Game: Spawn Point are continuing.
Spawn Point continues, hosted by myself, @bajopants, @goosemangus & @DARRENgg. No other GG shows continue.
— ur m8 raddles (@angharadyeo) January 31, 2017
Update [12:11PM]: Good Game has confirmed that the two hosts leaving are Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen and Nich “Nichboy” Richardson.
Update [12:47PM]: Senior producer Peter Burns has criticised the ABC, saying the cancellation of Pocket was “absurd” and that the online series was “the exact show the ABC should have been making”.
money = manpower. Pocket was the exact show the ABC should have been making. It’s absurd that they abandoned it.
— Peter Burns (@Pierreth) January 31, 2017
Update [8:53PM]: Presenter Gus “Goose” Ronald also put out a statement on Twitter earlier today.
Because 140 characters was never going to be enough for these feels 🙁 #ggtv pic.twitter.com/eQrGxuIU3f
— Gus Ronald (@goosemangus) January 31, 2017
Disclosure: Amanda Yeo is the sister of Angharad “Rad” Yeo.
Comments
130 responses to “Good Game Has Been Cancelled”
God damn it.
Anyone want to help me start a petition to ABC???
https://www.change.org/p/abc-abc-don-t-cancel-goodgame?recruiter=673306301&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
The ABC won’t respond to a change petition.
Do what Goose has suggested and write a complaint directly to the ABC:
http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complain.htm
and also write a letter to your MP.
Liked it in the early days then they added some robot to it and some crappy segments in between.
Felt like its demographic sunk about 20 years when that was introduced.
the robot was only on the kid’s show
:'(
Sad news, i haven’t watched the show for a long time but i remember it fondly, it was pretty cool that our government was funding a show about video games.
10 years is a great achievement and all the guys who worked on the show should be proud.
Not Happy, Jan!
No… Please ABC let Good Game Pocket on Youtube stay…
https://twitter.com/bajopants/status/826221769438556160
Pocket’s been cancelled as well. JLaG confirmed on Twitter 🙁
Aw shit!
Interesting, I thought it was only growing in popularity … well, I guess more people are just watching YouTube streamers, Twitch and such for this info now.
That is a shame but I only watched maybe half a dozen eps last year.
Then again I don’t really watch TV and some of those were on catch-up
And after the shit-storm they had when they hired Hex to replace Junglist it sounds like they might have had to replace both of them (or maybe it was goose and one of them) and figured it wasn’t worth the risk if it alienating a bunch of their viewers
That was 8 years ago lol, pretty sure noone cared after the first or second year.
Yeah, she became very popular.
There are still losers on social media complaining about it even in light of this terrible news
But this would be the first change to the core presenters since then so using the concept of what happened last time as a reference isn’t too much of a stretch.
It is the sort of justification that somebody looking for reasons to cut budgets would have raised as a reason with the departure of Hex and Nichboy
#MaintainTheRage
#GetOverIt
That’s a damn shame. Good Game was accessible, entertaining, and visible on a major network. Best wishes to those who left, and good luck to those who remain, hopefully they continue to produce content like this at the ABC.
There’s a lot of talent in the cast and crew. Even if they don’t stay with the ABC, I’m sure they’ll land on their feet.
Would be cool if they did a GiantBomb-esque move and set up their own video-casting / review site … maybe not the necessary size in the Australian market tomake worthwhile though.
I really enjoyed NichBoy’s work on The Roast – another excellent show that got axed too soon.
/all GG WP
I know it’s just a TV show, but I’m genuinely upset by this. I’ve been watching Good Game since the very first episode, and while it had a shaky start, it’s got better and better over the years.
Getting to actually meet and talk to Bajo and Dave Callan at the very first PAX AUS some years ago is one of my best memories of that event, and I hope that the entire team, whatever they do from here, continue to be engaged with the Australian gaming community.
GG was the only TV show I would tune in to watch. It’s been a part of my life since forever and I’m really going to miss watching the hosts getting into all sorts of shenanigans. I didn’t get my gaming “news” from GG, but it was highly entertaining. Now I’ve lost a day in my week that I looked forward too. It’s going to be a sad Tuesday without them
Seriously outside of GG and SBS Food Network I rarely watch “commercial tv” anymore with the advent of catch-up, youtube and netflix.
It’s a damn crying shame I loved shenanigans of both their show and live shows =(
I have nothing to look forward to to fill in my time in between weeks =(
Terrible.
I’m sure major cuts to the ABCs budget had absolutely nothing to do with this
And I’m sure cuts to ABCs budget had nothing to do with their decisions.
Hex and Nichboy left to pursue other passions… But keep fightn teh guvmint man!
See the statement from Nichboy? https://twitter.com/NichBoy/status/826234064264798208/photo/1
Which part mentioned funding?
Update to the article, budget cuts were the reason for the cancellation of Pocket.
No it says “money = manpower”… Which is obvious.
The ABC could have other projects, so many other things.
Most likely will re-divert funding to something that brings in viewers or new viewers.
Spawnpoint obviously was the show pulling more viewers (or it could come from a different set of funding)… Thus lives on. The side shows probably didn’t and without the main show become redundant.
Re-diverting funds equates to cutting the budget of those shows that are cancelled.
No it’s called cancelling the show. But hey it’s always the governments fault…
I blame Trump…. Yawn
Spawnpoint would have been the least effort to work around as opposed to the main GG program.
It fits perfectly well with the existing kids line-up on ABC4Kids and requires less “field work” as the main program (ie. E3 coverage, doing articles on the Indie scene, Victorias gaming programs, etc.) as its just reviews + letters of the day stuff.
In other words it’s the “cheapest” one to maintain without having to worry about the middle aged demographic that ABC traditionally doesn’t cater for much.
A presenter leaving doesn’t end the show, there is plenty of talented people who can fill a presenter role if there is a will to keep the show on air.
Trust me, the ABC doesn’t need cuts to axe shows and by association jobs.
They seem motivated enough to do so on their own.
Fare thee well GG. I might not have watched you in years, but you definitely flew the flag for gaming in Australia. Oh well. Here’s hoping like “The Zone” before you, you’re remembered fondly by geeks aplenty.
Like others, I used to watch GG back in the dark ages. In truth, Hex just put me off when I first saw her so I just stopped watching.
To me, she just seemed all attitude for the wrong reasons and I didn’t feel she represented the female demographic.
My view aside, it is sad to see this go. But at the same time it does not surprise me.
For over a decade now at least, the ABC has been thumbing its nose at its obligations as a public broadcaster and behaves like a corporate broadcaster (al la Channel 9, etc).
Really? Hex was fairly down to earth as a host actually… she had to be ying to bajo’s yang shenanigans in the show.
She really grew into the show after the first year jitters + drama.
OK. She just seemed to me like a living version of all that was bad with Lightning from FF13 or the more ansty versions of Lara Croft.
It was only around five episodes before I stopped so looks like I simply didn’t give her the chance.
At the same time, this was during my PhD righting days; didn’t have much patience and was under a lot of stress so the littlest thing just put me off.
Views aside though, the sadder part in all this some are already trying to engineer a unfound political statement of all this.
I don’t see why the ABC should be treated as a pure, unquestionable entity. The corporation (that is what it is called) has long stopped keeping the public interest in hear and is only protecting itself and the higher execs within.
The ABC we have now is nothing like the balanced version over a decade ago. Left or right, it doesn’t matter; it is not in the middle anymore and puts its own interests ahead of the public now.
Lol… yeah I can actually see people thinking that about Hex on her first season. She had the whole “punk” look and was rather stiff in her delivery for that season and literally just wasn’t sure how she would be “presenting” for the show.
She literally loosened up later on though and had a great flow with the shenanigan/funny banter with Bajo as she got used to the position.
As for the political side of things…. eh I choose not to touch that. I watch GG for entertainment.
But to be pefectly fair “public interest” is basically just whatever the government dictates at the time for the network. Since it’s public funded you are never ever going to get that middle because they have to answer to whoever is in charge (ie. the sitting government) or else they loose funding and get cutbacks. I’d say it’s even worse for ABC since w/o private funding they’re almost always on a leash. ABC hasn’t been “hands-off” for a very long time
This is really sad news. That the ABC was supporting a professional show about video games was one highlight of the TV schedule. Would love to find out who went where? From her Instagram account Steph seems like she’s moving on to other things, but was that a result of the change or a cause? In any case, Australian TV will be worse off for it.
@amandayeo @junglist Any chance of a retrospective on the series by Junglist? I’d love to see an article on what moments stood out for him over the life of the show.
Surprised.
Didn’t watch, I got tired of the 2 host format where they agreed 99.9% of the time.
But thought it had a following.
Nice temper tantrum on the down votes…
Meh. Good riddance.
The show was on a decline anyway. After the last season I would have put money on Bajo leaving or being forcibly replaced. The tone of the show changed from goofy and light hearted to Ultra serious and you could see personal politics entering almost every other story produced on the show. Even the games featured on the show changed from games people were playing to basically promotional spots for indie games that Hex wanted to push. When they did cover big games, Hex’s personal politics would often be brought up as the reason she’d score the games low. Bajo would sit there during these moments silently with no opinion at all. In fact, a lot of the 2016 season featured Bajo saying very little.
However, I’ve got nothing but praise for Janet Carr as producer. A lovely woman who cared deeply about the show and the fans. She’d go out of her way to address any complaints te fans had in a nice and civil manner. She also has one of the quickest wits on Twitter, having shared many a joke with her on the platform. I also feel for Goose, the poor underrated guy in all this. Top bloke and a real nice guy who often would be forgotten in news posts (notice he’s the only name missing in this article?).
Bajo stated on Twitter that he’ll stick with Spawn Point by the way.
Update: So because Hex leaves the show ends. Yet I’m getting downvotes for pointing out her influence in the decision making process of the show?
So what we got over here? A Cuppa Haters!
Upvoted your post.
I don’t necessarily agree with your opinion, but your post is quite nicely communicated and your points made are perfectly valid. I don’t know why people need to treat downvote=disagree all the time. Surrounding yourself with your own opinion is a dangerous way to live life, guys.
Thanks man. While I don’t expect people to agree with me, sometimes a “Agree to Disagree” is good enough. Too many people like to echo-chamber themselves about things these days.
Eh I’m in moderation hell…..
The usual 5 suspects…. Maybe if I somehow blame Trump or “conservatives” next time?
Or just blame the government.
Downvotes probably rolling in from putting the blame on someone people like. I don’t think you’re wrong though; if she alone chose not to leave, then the show would probably continue.
I can’t blame her for wanting to leave after 8 years though, nor should she have to continue being on the show if she no longer wants to, regardless of the outcome.
A bit disappointing if what you say about personal politics is true. It’s stuff like that killed Cracked.
The other theory is of course ABC just won’t bother w/ 2 GG and decided to just cash in on the SP one since it blends in with their children programs.
GG was probably one of the few shows that attracted the middle demographic from ABC. So I guess go for broke and cut it off and focus on the traditional “Auntie” viewers and the kids shows again?
But heck this is all just pointless speculation =P
As for the show being “ultra serious”…. honestly never saw that. The show was still pretty damned wacky shenanigans most of the time. Sure they had some serious stuff like when they focused on mental health week but honestly I see nothing wrong with changing things up like that once in a while… Pocket was just pure wacky goodness.
Meanwhile for the elephant in the room Hex’s personal politics in reviews… honestly IMHO it’s not that bad. Compared to other reviews out there where they basically shove it in your face most of that stuff was just thrown in personal comments as to why she disapproved she and bajo very quickly goes back to talking about the game anyway. I didn’t agree with some of the stuff she said.. but she was still down to playing a game and scoring it decently if it was a good game mechanically or storywise in her books.
Im surprised by how many people enjoyed the show. I watched part of an episode last year and thought it was out dated compared with YouTube etc…
Just looked like an old TV video game show trying to hold on for dear life. Plenty of better content to watch on YouTube at any time I want.
xenoun, I loved Good Game, and am now searching for something fill the void – at least until the new show comes out.
You say there is plenty of better content on YouTube, but so far I’ve been unable to find anything quite the same, i.e. a grounded, weekly show with clearly communicated reviews from more than one person, documentary segments, fun snippets like name the game, etc. Could you please share any suggestions for me and others?
Sad news I suppose, though I haven’t watched it in years. Liked it until they got rid of Junglist and replaced him with Hex, I found her personality didn’t offer any contrast to Bajo and they both sounded like pompous news reporters so I couldn’t stand it.
Is it really worth commenting about a change in the show from 8 years ago?
GG Facebook confirmed it was Hex and Nichboy who left
What a shock… NOT!
Looking at the comments on here, not many people cared for Hex. However because she leaves the show ends… Shows how much influence she had on decision makers there.
I don’t understand the hate for Hex or the love for Junglist. Watched Junglist when he moved to another gaming show shortly after leaving GG and he was awful.
That, and it was like 2009? It’s been 7 years dammit.
It’s the same “SJWs are ruining gaming” BS. “Hex ruined it with her politics, rah rah rah”. “They’re pandering to minorities, stop forcing wimminz on my gaming shows”, etc.
I don’t love Hex, but I don’t get the fanboi-ism for Junglist either.
I didn’t really care for either tbh …
I’d prefer (if they were going to go on) that they paired Bajo with Goose. I think they could work together quite well.
Your earlier comment is literally the only one saying anything negative about Hex.
I thought Hex was great.
Her leaving doesn’t equate to having undue influence on the show at all, more likely just the ABC management had been waiting for a chance to axe the show. The budget cuts are really brutal.
The logic of that doesn’t make sense. If people didn’t care for Hex, then why wouldn’t the showrunners replace her with someone – according to that train of thought – who had vastly more appeal with the audience instead of cancelling the show?
The reality is that Hex was beloved by the fans, a hugedraw card for the ABC across more than just Good Game, and will go on to have a huge career.
This is the ABC we’re talking about here, you may be overestimating the depth of qualitative audience data they have at their disposal for such decisions.
ABC aren’t great at decisions though. Remember when they cancelled one of the greatest (and more importantly cheapest) Australian shows on TV just so they could play the English equivalent’s repeats for a cheaper cost?
I’ll never forget you, Countdown.
TNETENNBA
Can you use that in a sentence?
Milk, straight up.
I challenge you to a game of street countdown
What’s street countdown
It’s basically the same as normal countdown but it’s played on the street
That doesn’t sound dangerous
It can get quite cold
I watched pre and post Hex.
Different dynamic but honestly a lot of the “Hex-hate” seems to have come from the “hardcore” GG fans of the pre-Hex seasons. And just dropped the show w/o giving her too much of a chance because Jung got kicked or because the show got more “mainstream”.
Which is a fair enough call if the show isn’t any longer to your taste… but Hex did have a decent amount of fans as well. Heck I found her fairly down to earth even on the live show and Q&A stuff.
Compounded with all the other crap going on in the world, I think this has just about broken me.
Based on what Bajo said on twitter, the “new format” Spawn Point will be something similar to what currently exists with “Angharad, Bajo, DARREN and Goose”, so at least the series will continue in some capacity.
Pocket is apparently not returning as Nichboy was the other host to leave (along with Hex). This was confirmed by members of the GG team on the Pocketeers facebook group.
In addition to this, the editor of Pocket, John, just stated on Twitter that he has been let go in spite of the statement regarding all remaining employees being kept on. Possibly means Pete is also gone.
This isn’t entirely correct. I said I’d been let go from the GG team. I still have a job at the ABC, its just editing a gardening show now, not video games.
Gardening? Christ, you poor bastard.
I love ya, John Ladiesandgentlemen, and I will miss Pocket very much.
Thanks for clarification, best of luck on I assume Gardening Australia, I actually like that show for what its worth. Hopefully you get a chance to make it your own in someway or find something more suited to you in the near future.
🙁
#BringBackJunglist
We’ve had plenty of this sort of take and I won’t begrudge people who never forgave the ABC or preferred the show’s original incarnations. But as a warning to everyone: follow the Don’t Be An Asshat philosophy.
Remember that a lot of people have had their careers upturned as a result of this; some have even been totally thrown off-kilter, with suggestions of at least one producer being redirected to a gardening show.
Please remember to show some consideration the people behind this, especially everyone who wasn’t on camera.
Bit harsh to single out @shithead here on what seems to be a fairly banal comment. Good Game was my favourite Aussie TV show and I’m sad (and shocked that it’s over), but I don’t think this thread should be some sort of shrine to it or the people who worked on it.
Not calling out one person specifically, but I can only reply to one post at a time and I don’t want to go on a whole “this person, that person” tangent either; forgive me for that.
I more picked this thread as a port of call because it devolved into pointless shitposting. Hope that at least explains the thinking, anyway. It’s been a long day.
Plus it’s a characteristic Shithead comment whenever GG is involved. Just wouldn’t be a GG article without it 😛
His reply is warranted because whenever there was an article on here about GG or Hex herself, Youd get the junglist fanboys swarming in sooking about him getting the flick. He got fired, They need to get over it. They look like whiny children.
The downvotes are weird.
If Hex chose to leave, it’s the PERFECT time to bring back Junglist.
That a real shame.
Well, sh!t
Was good while it lasted
man this show was so annoying it put me off
#BringBackJunglist
No, Get over it.
Never really watched it, save a few episodes here and there.
I was more of a Level 3 guy.
Well that’s unfortunate I give it three rubber chickens.
good riddance, stopped watching when Hex took over, her attitude annoyed the crap out of me… and too much aimed at young gamers…. gamers are average age of 40 these days… how about hosts and people who played arcade games in the 80’s ? I won’t miss this (can’t miss something stopped watching years ago)
This is very disappointing. Pocket was literally my favourite youtube subscription. Catching up with Nichboy and the team’s antics every day was so much fun and something to look forward to in the evenings. But I can’t think of anyone worthy of replacing him, so perhaps if he wanted out its a good thing its ending? Still disappointed, though.
Good Game was also a favourite and a show that I have watched with my son since he was a little tyke. We’ve bonded over many games we heard of from GG! It will be missed big time in this house. There is a big void on Australian TV now, and there will be a big gap in Australian online gaming news too. 🙁
I’m in the same camp, never really watched Good Game proper, but really enjoyed my daily dose of pocket. I really hope something can blossom from this.
Bajo, Hex and the rest of the team were a strong positive influence on gaming culture in this country, hopefully everyone will be on to bigger and better things.
Lol at people still beating the Junglist drum.
My jaw did drop in shock but at same time it was something i was wondering about the future of the show. Hex had been there a while, Bajo even longer, Nichboy doing well with his online show but wasn’t getting the numbers he had hoped or the show had hoped and wondering when they would be planning a new chapter for themselves. For a show purely dedicated to gamers, they did mighty well. Seeing that it was Hex and Nichboy who chose to leave is interesting, wonder if they are planning something together or just to go separate ways. I know Nichboy loved his show and community so hoping he does something similiar. He even spoke about what he would do if wasn’t doing pocket. Overall, bit sad as it was a great show and pocket was awesome and hope we see them again.
That’s a shame. I did stop watching over the past year as i found the presentation increasingly juvenile, however I always intended to return. Best of luck to them all though and thanks for all the great work.
Goddamn I was hoping this was an April Fools but it’s way to freaking early…
I am going to seriously miss GG.. was the only thing I looked forward to on a weekday! Commercial TV is pretty much dead to me now besides Food Network =/
This is seriously unexpected news. And it looked like things were going from strength to strength. 🙁
I watched GG on-and-off, mostly on TV and occasionally on iView. There was a point where I stopped watching somewhere in the middle but in the last few years I went back. Loved every minute of it. I loved how everyone involved had a real genuine passion for video games, the people and the industry. One recent standout was Nichboy’s coverage of Aussie game devs at (IIRC) GDC 2016. That was a great piece of work right there.
I’m really bummed to see Steph and Nich go, but I sincerely wish them every success in their post-GG lives. I look forward to their next projects. 🙂
Fortunately Steven O’Donnell, Goose and a few others are staying on (YES!). Hopefully they can build something bigger and better from out of the ashes. GG is gone but its soul lives on.
This is really disappointing news. Good Game was a great show, and it’s influence on younger gamers was enormous – you only had to see the queues of kids lining up to get autographs at things like the EB expo, and the sold out live shows.
It started out as a review show, but it really became a celebration of all things gaming, with a very Australian viewpoint – something you don’t often get from YouTubers.
To all the idiots who are *still* hurting that Hex joined the show – you can get @#$%ed. I thought she was fantastic (As well as the very awesome Rad!).
My son is going to cry when he finds out that Bajo, Hex and DARREN won’t be on tv anymore, he’d only just started watching last year. We’d just watched the most excellent web-series with Goose and Julian about how to make a game in Scratch. Now I have to rush to download all that material before it’s gone.
Good Luck to Bajo, Hex, DARREN, Goose, Nichboy, Rad, Hingers, Dave, Andrew and everyone who made Good Game and GGSP so much fun every week.
Good news though Bajo, DARREN, Goose and Rad are supposedly going to be around to host GG SP. They are apparently going to be retooling the show.
But for the rest of us older folks though it’s an end of an era. =(
Yeah, the news isn’t all bad. Keeping fingers crossed for the new GGSP.
I’m not surprised, it’s gown way downhill in the last few years when games became less important than fancy looking productions.
PS I like Hex more than Junglist, but I liked Kapowski the most, followed by Goose.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TELL ME THIS IS A GODDAMN NASTY LIE!!! PLEASE??!!!!!!?? I grew up with this show 🙁 so incredibly upset by this news :'( :'(
Why is everyone pretending that Hex wasn’t the only reason to watch the show?
Hey, I’ll not have you badmouth that monkey’s good name!
And they’re surely not going to replace it with anything… “Put on a interesting Australian-run gaming show on our publicly funded non-advertising network? Where’s the money in that!”
So, what are these new opportunities that Hex and Nichboy are pursuing? I’m curious.
Shame about the show. It was about the only thing I watched on FTA. Now, I can probably disconnect my TV antenna for good.
Lol… yeah I’m on the same boat right now.
Technically only the Food Network is the only thing playing on our FTA TV these days… and because of the shitty reception in our area gets jammed on a regular basis… so can’t even watch that properly either =/
FTA is practically dead to me now XD
Damn. I remember playing The Division at launch and running into Bajo and Goose in the Dark Zone. It was a great experience, the tired to kill me and my friends. So we killed them. … Fond memories
What the fuck? Seriously ABC, what the fuck? Let’s just bring more pommy crime dramas instead shall we?
I’m gut wrenched… #Jolene
The show was ok, Im neither sad or happy the show’s finishing.
I like lamp.
offtopic :perfect example of why shouldnt be able to downvote on kotaku and get blicked
ontopic:
GG GG WP even tho i only watched a season… i prefer reading than TV
Fair enough, probably time to put it out to pasture.
It pretty much became the ‘Top Gear’ of gaming shows, ie infotainment instead of being about Games.
Why watch a weekly show that tries to cram 3 reviews into a 30 hour show when I can go to youtube and see a 20 minute review of one game? Why watch reviews of games on platforms I don’t play on? Why do I have to wait a whole week to see the ‘latest’ news? Who even watches TV anymore??
I wouldn’t cringe about Australia not having any decent gaming shows anymore. There are plenty of good Aussie gamers on youtube and twitch… get out there and discover them!
Except it wasn’t all about that though….. they ran some really excellent stuff on the current Indie Scene here in AU as well as the collapse of the big AAA studios and its effects on local AU folks. Covered a lot of local gaming related stuff like the PAX and the yearly gaming stuff Victoria organises and heck just general random opinion pieces and their E3 coverage was always amusing.
Yes it’s infotainment and “mainstream” but is that really a bad thing? Gaming *is* mainstream and to have a very aussie influence show for the general audience is something I feel is a good thing… it opens you up to a lot folks who are into gaming and the media itself as well as a nice dip in the pond for the folks interested in the media. Sure you may be able to look up great aussie folks and shows on Youtube and heck most of the new generation live off Youtube/Netflix now… but having an Australian host vs an Australian focused show are 2 different things.
And on top of that #GG also managed to foster a huge community of gamers from a lot of points of the spectrum because of just merely being an “aussie game show for gamers by gamers”
Yes it’s easy to look up “reviews” and whatnot these days but it’s nice to have that “1 week break” in between as a pause between all the over saturation of the easily accessible information we live in.
“Corrupt politicians, war in the Middle East, shorter seasons of Game of Thrones and now this bullshit!”
What a bummer. I liked to watch this show.
Wow, I can’t describe how much this affected me. As someone who grew up with this show, it is heartbreaking to see it go. Regardless of the decisions the studio made I always popped in to watch the occasional episode.
It all started in 2006 with the first episode. I watched it while looking through the different channels and I instantly fell in love with it. Sure the 2006 episodes have dated a fair bit, but it comes from a place of passion and heart that I can’t help but feel both nostalgic and heart-warmed whenever I watch those episodes.
In 2007 when Bajo was added, I instantly fell in love with him. His wit and passion for video games was just addictive and beautiful, and he worked well with Junglist. It made the show really interesting to watch. Seeing 2 people who love video games for different reasons. It made the show feel like a video game talk show equivalent of Siskel and Ebert (without the roasting). It also helped an animator get popularity. That animator is Ross O’Donovan (also know as Rubber Ross from the Game Grumps). Seeing how much of an impact the show had on someone who was originally just a basic flash animator.
In 2008 the show just got better with the hosts working much better in front of the camera. Although one of my biggest fears started in this season, the show getting too political. Don’t get me wrong, the field reporter Lux was a good field reporter. It was just a fear I had.
In 2009 the show just kept getting better and better…until Junglist got fired and was replaced with Hex. Now before people start a flame war with me, I like Hex (especially in the early days). She’s clever, has a great sense of humour and clearly is down to earth, although I do prefer Junglist. Junglist mainly focused on why he enjoyed a game instead of getting really political about it. Now Hex still does state (and quite well I might add) why she loves the games she’s playing, but when she get’s too political it’s downright painful. When she quickly mentions why she finds something offensive its fine (it’s actually really respectful in my eyes). But it does get old and it feels like pandering (at least to me anyway). Anyway I don’t really want to dwell on this point. To summarise, I think Hex is Great but I do prefer Junglist.
In 2010 Spawn point was created and it was meh. I mean the early seasons were charming and very creative, but as it went on it got honestly very cringe worthy, mainly because they were pandering to kids way younger than the demographic that would watch spawn point.
In 2011 Goose was added to the squad and I think it was a fantastic decision in my eyes. He is witty, clever, creative and had a pure passion for his job. It’s just such a shame that the ABC never realised this and never gave him a chance to do much. He was like an underdog in this and it’s such a major disappointment that he was never utilised outside of being the guy who does the reports.
In 2012 I started to notice something, Hex and Bajo seemed to agree far too much and it wasn’t in the vein other other dual reviewers where when they like something it was for the same reasons. While it wasn’t too noticeable at first it started to really become noticeable as the show went on. It seemed that Bajo and Hex had too similar a personality.
In 2013 I stopped watching the show. Mainly because it was the phase of my life where I started to nitpick absolutely everything, but also because I really didn’t enjoy the show anymore. I mean I loved Dave Callem and his humour, but the show just started to bore me a little. Sure I watched the occasional review and segment and I still respected the show but I never resumed until 2015.
In 2014, I never really watched the show.
In 2015 I saw a move that really shocked me. They changed the rubber chicken system, to an annoying bullshit star system. Why? Apparently it was to stay hip with the times, but it was something that was so stupid that I couldn’t help but feel upset. Why fix a system that isn’t broken? Has no-one learned the shapes catastrophe? Don’t mess with something people loved. Although two really good things came that year, Nickboy and Hingers. Hingers had a lot of passion and it showed, although it was upsetting to see him constantly get demoted in favour for Nickboy (however good as he may be). Nickboy is great. He has a lot of energy and it shows his true passion for what he does and he made for a great host for Good Game: Pocket. While I’m not personally a fan of his humour he is still really lovable.
In 2016, things just got darker and darker. The show seemed really political now which I could see coming but it was still annoying to say the least. I thought this was Good Game, a show where people expressed there passion for games while both reviewing and discussing topics behind games. Not the View, where Whoopi Goldberg and some Raptors blab on about really opinionated shit. Janet Carr, the creator left the show which made me a quite upset. Someone who cared about her fans and her show so much is really aspiring to me and I’m glad she left a legacy with this show. She also had a great sense of humour. I did really love the 10 year anniversary though. It was a great tribute to something that had a big impact.
Today the bad news came out and I am crushed by it. From someone who adored early good game and respected modern good game, I am hoping everyone does well in there future endeavours. Even if there were some decisions by the ABC that boggles my mind.
The big thing that pisses me off with the cancellation is the fact that they also cancelled pocket, when the reason they cancelled the show is because people are looking for another platform to watch it on. WHY WOULD YOU CANCEL THE SHOW THAT WAS USING THE PLATFORM EVERYONE WAS USING? If it was because Nickboy left, why don’t you just replace him? You’ve got plenty of people, why can’t Rad host it? Give her a chance, she could be even better for all we know.
Good Game: Spawn Point will still continue with a new format. And with even better news they are giving Rad a chance. I am hopeful with the new format change as it could give Spawn Point the face-lift it needed.
Good Game will forever remain in my heart, with every bad decision the studio made, there was a fantastic decision just around the corner. Good Game will always be part of my life and it will have an impact in both Australia and the gaming world. RIP.
2006-2017
Who makes these decisions to close down shows on the ABC? Last year it was Catalyst, now this. So disgusted. I loved GG and strangely enough I was wondering lately about it finishing. I watched it religiously every Tues night even Spawn Point on a Sat morning and I’m 65 and a gamer. Gaming is today’s entertainment and in my case saved my life. Kids are learning to program in schools, apparently that’s the newest thing… so what’s with the ABC if they were onto a good thing and very current at that?!? Money money money. Somebody needs their head read.
As for Hex, if she left already, why is she so upset about it on instagram? Or maybe she didn’t realise her decision would cause the show to shut down, although I highly doubt her leaving is really the reason they’re stopping the show, even know that’s what they’re saying. That’s just a lame excuse.
It was all part of the Liberal parties plan to deconstruct the ABC. The ABC is a shadow of its former self. Good game was a good show, the Liberals knew this. They didn’t want a younger generation or any generation liking or watching the ABC as it used to be the only broadcaster that truly held them to account…… sigh. I miss Good Game and i miss a good ABC.
Bring back Doc Dan and Lux!
This sucks. Good Game pulled me back into games at times when I had less interest. My favourite and only Australian TV show will be missed dearly 🙁